PLAYLIST: Remembering Aretha Franklin in song

Thursday

Aug 16, 2018 at 2:13 PMAug 18, 2018 at 12:13 PM

Listen as you remember Aretha Franklin, a woman whose vocal wonders remain unmatched in modern music.

There must be something about Aug. 16. In 1977, we lost The King on this day when Elvis Presley died at age 42. And today, we lost The Queen: Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin passed away at age 76 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Thousands of words have already been written about her life and legacy, exactly none of which could ever truly capture the transcendence exemplified by her stunning voice and the way she employed it. But perhaps former President Obama said it best:

Aretha helped define the American experience. In her voice, we could feel our history, all of it and in every shade—our power and our pain, our darkness and our light, our quest for redemption and our hard-won respect. May the Queen of Soul rest in eternal peace. pic.twitter.com/bfASqKlLc5

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 16, 2018

Appropriately, Spotify has its "This is Aretha Franklin" playlist placed front and center today: Listen below as you remember the woman whose voice and presence had a profound impact on the battles for civil rights and women's rights, and whose vocal wonders remain unmatched.